It's not just flagship mobile devices where Qualcomm is looking to lead - see the announcement of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 for that - as the company just revealed its G3x Gen 1 platform. Bigger than that, however, it has showcased this in a handheld device with integrated screen and controls that is, well, a big enough deal to rival the never-happened Nintendo Switch Pro.
The prototype device, which is termed as the Snapdragon G3x 'Handheld Developer Kit', is produced by Razer. And before you shrug it off as yet another Android gaming handheld destined for failure there's a key take-away to consider: it can run Xbox Game Pass and even your PC's Steam library, meaning its offering isn't just mobile titles, but more advanced games designed for gameplay with a controller.
The Razer prototype houses a Full HD+ 6.65-inch OLED panel that can run at 120 frames per second, thanks to Qualcomm's Adreno GPU, delivering the kind of must-have spec that next-gen gamers will be looking for. That's a similar size to the Nintendo Switch OLED's 7-inch panel, but double the refresh rate and with 10-bit HDR colour goodness.
| collection: | Razer Qualcomm handheld |
Plug the Qualcomm handheld into a compatible TV, however, and output at 4K is possible - although, as far as we can determine, at a lower refresh rate of 60Hz.
The handheld also houses a 6,000mAh battery capacity, a 1080p webcam (plus picture-in-picture), Wi-Fi 6E for speedy wired network connectivity, and the same class-leading 5G mmWave and Sub-6GHz speeds as offered in Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
It's that connectivty aspect which makes this handheld device even more tempting, as its ability to be connected to the cloud - signal permitting, of course - means you can game on the go. Dig into those Xbox Game Pass titles when and how you please.
So while Qualcomm and Razer's device looks like a handheld to get gamers excited, there's an obvious caveat: it's not a real product that's yet destined to go on sale. But if the right partners jump on board then, who knows, this could be an exciting development in handheld gaming - the kind to let us forget about Google Stadia and the like. For now it represents a really interesting showcase of Qualcomm's Elite Gaming technologies that other developers could also jump aboard.
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